India in talks with Ukraine’s neighbours for evacuated students’ education

Three medical students from Nagaland among evacuees

New Delhi, April 6 (PTI): India is in talks with countries like Hungary, Romania, Kazakhstan and Poland for continuing education of students evacuated from Ukraine, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Wednesday.

Responding to a discussion in Lok Sabha on the situation in Ukraine, Jaishankar said the Ukrainian government too has offered relaxation for students for taking two key examinations in their medical education courses.

He said India was the first country to evacuate its citizens from the war-torn country and no one else did so at the scale at which India did, serving as an “inspiration” to others.

The minister also asserted that with his experience of 45 years, he can confidently say that the situation and challenges that were there in ‘Operation Ganga’, India has never evacuated citizens in this number in such a situation.

Talking about the future of the evacuated students, Jaishankar said the Ukrainian government has decided there would be a relaxation for students with respect to promotion from the third to the fourth year.

“The mandatory CROC exam has been postponed to the next academic year. As for the students in the sixth year, the degrees would be accorded without taking the mandatory CROC-2 examination. The criterion would solely be academic performance,” he told the House.

He noted that Hungary had offered to allow students evacuated from Ukraine to complete their medical courses at its universities.

“In addition to Hungary, there were offers from other countries. We have been in touch with Hungary, Romania, Kazakhstan and Poland about continuing education for the students evacuated from Ukraine. Because these countries have similar education systems,” Jaishankar said.

He noted that ministries of education and health were seized of the matter and were exploring ways on how those evacuated from Ukraine could continue their education.

The finance ministry has also asked banks to assess the impact of the Ukraine crisis on the educational loans offered by them to students in Ukraine, the minister told members.

“There are 1,319 students who have outstanding loans,” he said.

Responding to issues flagged by members during the course of the discussion on Tuesday, the minister said some students did not leave as they thought it will disturb their education.

Several universities at that time had refused to offer online courses, he said, adding that a university in Kyiv said it cannot convert to online system.

“There was one in Odessa which said we can (allow) online classes till February 25 only. A university in Kharkiv — the embassy kept calling them and even sent someone to meet — they were not willing to meet,” he said.

Some universities suggested that students should stay back as things won’t get serious, he said.

Career at stake

It may be mentioned that three medical students from Nagaland were among the thousands of Indians who were evacuated from Ukraine after Russia launched a military offensive on the country on February 24.

The three medical students, who were studying medicine at different universities in the war-torn country, had earlier told Eastern Mirror that they were apprehensive about the remaining years of their courses despite online classes being conducted (earlier in March).

One of the students had said that her future and career was at stake, and that it would be difficult to go back to Ukraine and expect everything to be the same as before. She also expressed apprehension that they might never be able to return to their university.